Bethesda teenager rises through the robotics ranks

Grace Young to compete in world competition

Grace Young, 16, of Bethesda, tinkers with a robot she built for competition. Young travels to Atlanta this week to compete in the FIRST Tech Challenge World Robotics Championship, where she'll go head-to-head with 100 other one- and multiple-member teams from the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Like many teenage girls, Grace Young has a bubbly personality, wears polo shirts and enjoys dancing.

Then, on weekends, she drives and flies across the country with her homemade robot battling other metal machines in a flurry of software, steel, gears, motors and controllers.

It's safe to say Grace Young is not your typical 16-year-old.

Thanks to her prowess in robotics, Young, a Bethesda resident, has earned a trip to the FIRST Tech Challenge World Robotics Championship in Atlanta this weekend, to face 100 one- and multiple-member teams from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

FIRST, which stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," is a nonprofit founded in 1989 to inspire young people to participate in science and technology education.

"I like the challenge and how you have to be creative," Young said. "[Robotics] requires a lot of different skills."

Young did not build a C3PO-style Star Wars robot, or a cyborg assassin, like The Terminator. Each competitor at the championships must build a robot that performs a specific function. This year, competitors must program their machines to pick up small hockey pucks and drop them into a vertical goal.

At the Atlanta world championships, the objective is simple: score as many goals as possible. Attaining that goal is more complicated. In October Young received a package containing all the pieces participants are allowed to use to make their robots. Competitors must create their robots from identical kits, ensuring fairness.

After Young planned the robot's design, she also had to program its computer software, so the robot can perform autonomously when necessary.

Once at the competition, her machine competes head-to-head with other robots on a square 12-foot field, covered with rough terrain.

"It's very important to have a good, functioning robot that is also programmed well," she said. "Sometimes you have purely defensive robots, and sometimes you have offensive ones, depending on the alliance."

During the competitions, teams are paired up randomly with other teams, Young said. That two-team combo then competes against other two-team combinations, so it sometimes helps to pair an offensive robot — one that can score more easily — with one more prone to defend.

In addition to her solo effort, Young also is part of the robotics team at The Potomac School in McLean, Va. She builds her robot at the school and competes with her teammates in competitions across the country. The Potomac team — which is entirely composed of girls — recently took home second place at the VEX Robotics' Championship of the Americas in Omaha, Neb.

Young joined the team last year as a freshman only because it "looked interesting" and has quickly risen through the ranks.

She qualified for the Atlanta tournament by winning a tournament in Delaware earlier this year, she said.

"This is truly a national-caliber team," said Potomac Robotics Team Coach Bill Wiley. "And Grace, she just never stops until she gets it right. She has great ideas and is very clever and she doesn't make many mistakes."

While robotics is generally a male-dominated field, his team of teenage girls has more than held its own over its male counterparts, Wiley said.

"There's a stigma attached to it when they get to high school," he added. "Girls really don't like to do it alone, so it's good they have each other."

Grace's mother, Mercedes Young, said the team has instilled a sense of community in her daughter.

"This is a very good collaborative environment," she said. "Part of the philosophy of robotics is gracious professionalism,' and I have to say that the team really practices this well."

Young believes her experience with robots will lead her into a career in engineering. For now, though, she has Atlanta on her mind.

"I'm not really ready," she said. "I have to work on some more programs."